Thor and Rocket Almost Fought Giant Serpents in ‘Avengers: Infinity War’

Though the movie focused on Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, Avengers: Infinity War greatly expanded Thor‘s mythology as he teamed with Rocket Raccoon and Groot on a journey to Nidavellir. But they almost faced some gigantic, fierce foes that Marvel Comics fans would recognize.

In The Art of Avengers: Infinity War book (which you can purchase right here), a piece of concept art shows shows Thor and Rocket teaming up in an epic battle with a pair of gigantic serpents, which appear to be inspired by the Midgard Serpent.

In Norse mythology, the serpent is known as Jörmungandr and is so large that it wraps around Midgard, lying in the ocean and gripping its own tail. The Ragnarök prophecy is said to begin when it releases its tail, igniting an epic final battle with Thor.

That whole prophecy was tweaked for Thor: Ragnarok, which didn’t involve any serpents, so it’s likely that Avengers: Infinity War would have taken some liberties in adapting the iconic creature.

While it would have been cool to see Thor and Rocket fighting a pair of giant snakes, it would have detracted from the film’s main plot. Besides, Thor went through a much more emotional journey in his attempt to obtain a weapon capable of killing Thanos.

And though that quest really put Thor through his paces, he ultimately fell short. He failed to deliver the killing blow to Thanos, who then proceeded to wipe out half of existence. Which, of course, had to happen considering Thanos was the main character in the film.

“Thanos has been lurking in the shadows with a desire to obtain these Infinity Stones, which has played a big part in our other films,” Feige said in Marvel Studios: The First Ten Years. “We’ve introduced the Tesseract, revealed to be the Space Stone; the Mind Stone, which came out of Loki’s scepter and then went into Vision’s forehead; and the Time Stone: the Eye of Agamotto that Doctor Strange wears is an Infinity Stone itself! And of course the Guardians dealt with the Power Stone.

“So these storytelling devices that we’ve seeded into every film will continue to play a part and come together. We’ve been teasing this for six years. That’s a long time to tease something cinematically before paying it off. Thanos has to be the greatest villain in our movies.“

We’ll see if Thanos gets his revenge — and maybe fights a giant serpent — in Avengers 4, premiering in theaters on May 3, 2019.